Winter Park soccer player sets goal: to meet birth mom for first time in Chile

Midfielder Gabby Corral, who was adopted at 1 year old, will lead Winter Park into district tournament

January 12, 2014|By Alicia DelGallo, Orlando Sentinel

WINTER PARK — In a perfect world, Gabby Corral would walk off the plane in Chile to find her mother, brother and two sisters there to greet her.

The Winter Park soccer player knows things are far from perfect, though.

"It's probably not going to happen," she said of the trip she is planning after graduation next year. "I know [my mother] doesn't want me to meet the family because they don't know I'm living."

Born in Los Lagos, Chile, Corral was a year old when she was adopted. She was told her mother couldn't afford another child and kept the pregnancy a secret. Corral, who has helped the Wildcats to the top seed in this week's Class 5A, District 5 tournament, considers it a blessing.

If she hadn't been adopted, she probably wouldn't have traveled to China, like she did on her 13th birthday or learned how to ride a thoroughbred. She definitely would not be playing soccer for Winter Park (17-1-1).

"There's a chance I could've been living a lot worse," Corral said. "Being adopted, it makes me see life as I got a second chance, and I'm going to try my hardest to show my birth mom made a good decision to give me up."

The junior midfielder, who has two goals and four assists, hopes to return to Chile as a member of the women's national soccer team and work in the community where she was born.

"It's just a dream," Corral said.

Said Winter Park coach Jimmy Angeles, who was born in Peru: "She brings a different style to the group you don't usually find in a player. I call it South American style. She likes to go around and make small plays, then go toward the front for a goal."

Corral was the second of two Chilean children adopted from different families by Debora Corral-Morgan, who raises race horses, and Karim Rahemtullah, a financial writer. The two since have divorced. Isabel Corral, 19, was the first, also joining the family when she was a baby.

"They sent us a picture about three weeks before we went to get her," Debora said. "She was just beautiful, and she was mine."

Debora told her daughters they were adopted at an early age and encourages them to reconnect with their biological families if that is their choice.

That's why she's taking Corral on a monthlong trip to Chile next year. The two plan to reach out to Gabby's birth mother.

And if she doesn't agree to meet?

"So many emotions are going to go through my head," Corral said. "I'm a crier, so I'll probably be crying my eyes out.

"Even if she doesn't want to meet me, I'm just excited to go there and see where I came from and how my life could've been."

Corral was 3 years old the first time she truly understood she was adopted. She and Debora were sitting on a wooden chest that served as a giant jewelry box, with bracelets and necklaces inside that she and Isabel had made and rounded corners Debora shaved down so they wouldn't get hurt.

"She told me, 'Gabby, your mom couldn't afford you. She just couldn't take care of you and give you the life she wanted you to have,'" Corral said. "I remember saying, 'She may be my birth mother, but you're my mom.'"

Teammate Mary Page Leggett, who has known Corral since she was 7, had no idea she was adopted.

"I thought it was really cool," Leggett said of when she found out a few years ago. "She looks just like her mom actually, her adoptive mom, which is kind of funny."

Corral could soon find out whether she looks like her birth mother, too.